New Orleans Sends Mashburn Home

MIAMI — The New Orleans Hornets decided Tuesday that Jamal Mashburn, not on the floor much this season and not on their playoff roster, shouldn't be anywhere in sight for their remaining playoff games.

"We're in the playoffs," said Bob Bass, the Hornets' executive vice president of basketball operations. "To have a story every day after this ... go on and on, that's why he won't be with the team."

Bass was referring to a story Tuesday in which the 2002 All-Star criticized the Hornets' handling of his medical treatment and pondered retirement.

"It came at a bad time, a real bad time," said Bass, who spoke with Mashburn on Tuesday.

Reached by phone Tuesday night, the former Heat forward said he was told Bass would meet with him Thursday in New Orleans, after the Hornets return there. He was still in town Tuesday because "I have a home here" in Miami Beach.

Mashburn didn't understand why his comments created such a stir.

"All that stuff has been said before, so I don't know what the reason was," said Mashburn, who played only 19 games this season because of a bone bruise in his knee. "Someone asked me a question, and I gave an honest answer. That's the only way I know how to be. I would think people would respect me for it, and I respect myself for it. And they know how I feel. I didn't realize you can get penalized for how you feel. But the facts are the facts, the truth is the truth. I've been traveling with them. I've done everything they've asked me to do. I go to practices, I do all the rehab, all the treatment. What more can they ask me to do?"

Mashburn acknowledged that he told the Hornets he couldn't play in the first round against the Heat. The Hornets responded by leaving him off the playoff roster, ending his season.

"I had no crystal ball for them," Mashburn said. "I said, `Right now, I'm not healthy to play.' But I want to play, that's what I do. ... I'm just looking for some clear answers on my health. I think that's the least I can ask for."

All Mashburn knows for sure is that "it hurts when I run. The doctor told me there is no timetable. I asked him, `Why do I keep bruising my bone?' He told me, `There's no cartilage in your knee.'"

Yet Mashburn says he wanted to be around even if he couldn't play, and that he was trying to help young players like David West understand playoff basketball.

"I like this group of guys," Mashburn said. "There's never been a problem with us. There may have been some miscommunication as far as me doing rehab down here [during the season]."

Mashburn said he did that for his health. Now 31, with one more year on his contract at $9.3 million and an option for 2006-07, Mashburn is calling retirement "an option. Because it's bone on bone. I want to play, that's my main objective. But I'm a big-picture guy, and if I'm in too much pain, I have to take that into consideration."

The other Hornets didn't consider Mashburn's banishment a big deal, because he wasn't on the playoff roster anyway.